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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

After the high profile hanging of Kasab and Afzal Guru,
there was talk of 4 of Veerappan’s aides following……. The news now is that the
Supreme Court today stayed the execution of four of Veerappan’s aides until
further notice. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir said it
was keeping the matter pending since another bench, which has heard an
identical plea, has reserved its judgement……………… and that puts off the decision
for another 6 weeks enabling another bench to deliver the judgement in another
pending matter. The bench noted that the subject matter of the petition was
relating to the right of the death row convicts to get their sentence commuted
to life imprisonment on account of delay of execution of their death sentence ~
and that refers to the judgement in Devinder Pal Singh case.

Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar is a convict on death row, found
guilty of killing 9 bystanders in a 1993 car bombing intended to kill
Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, and sentenced to death by hanging. Whether you call
that ‘Cruel or postponement or incorrect’ depends on your individual
perspection..

The four - Gnanaprakasam, Bilavendra, Meesai Madhaiah and
Simon were sentenced to death for their involvement in carrying out a landmine
blast in 1993 which killed 22 people. Their mercy petitions were rejected by
the President on 13 February and are presently lodged in a jail in Belgaum, Karnataka. The counsel for the petitioners is quoted as
seeking that the death sentence be commuted since there has been a delay in disposing
of their mercy petitions and since they are in bad health and are in their
fifties or sixties. The four involved
are : Gnanaprakasam, Bilavendra, Meesai Madhaiah and Simon, former associates of sandalwood smuggler
Veerappan convicted for killing 22 policemen.

The four were part of 124 persons who were arrested in
connection with the case and booked under the now defunct Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (Prevention Act).
117 of the accused were acquitted. However, seven persons were sentenced
to life imprisonment. Of the seven, the Supreme Court took up the case of the
four and sentenced them to death in connection with planting the mine. The
Supreme Court chose to overrule the lower court’s ruling sentencing the four to
life imprisonment and instead modified their punishment to death penalty and
had stated that : “They do not deserve any sympathetic consideration. There is
no evidence or foundation for the conclusion that they acted under the duress
of Accused No.1 (Veerappan). The facts of the present case do not show that the
appellants were compelled to fall in line with the criminal activity of accused
No.1 or that they joined his group on account of any duress or compulsion. The
manner in which the crime was committed clearly shows that any person can
contemplate the disastrous effect of blasting of landmines. It is evident that
the crime was diabolically planned. The appellants are threat and grave danger
to society at large. They must have anticipated that their activity would
result in elimination of large number of lives. As a result of criminal
activities, the normal life of those living in the area has been totally
shattered. It would be mockery of justice if extreme punishment is not imposed.
Thus, having given anxious consideration to all the circumstances aggravating
and mitigating, in our view, there can hardly be a more appropriate case than
the present one to award maximum sentence. We have to perform this onerous duty
for self- preservation, i.e., preservation of persons who are living and
working in the area where appellants and their group operate.”